The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: ABX on February 11, 2016, 04:13:02 pm
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This one is actually yuge.
Scientists say they have finally detected gravitational waves – the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago....
...One theorist says the feat ranks along Galileo taking up a telescope and looking at the planets.....
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/02/11/major-einstein-theory-proven-correct-and-theorist-says-the-discovery-is-as-important-as-galileos-telescope/
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That gets an official Spock 'fascinating'.
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Einstein Was Right! Existence of Gravitational Waves Finally Confirmed
© Flickr/ NASA Blueshift
Scientists working at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project have announced a major scientific breakthrough - the existence of gravitational waves.
"We have detected gravitational waves. We did it," LIGO executive director David Reitze said during a press conference at Washington DC.
This Image obtained January 31, 2016 from NASA shows a self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover vehicle at Namib Dune, where the rover's activities included scuffing into the dune with a wheel and scooping samples of sand for laboratory analysis.
The researchers were able to observe the ripples of space-time, also known as gravitational waves, caused by a collision of two black holes which occurred almost 1.3 billion years ago. The phenomenon was actually detected on September 14, 2015, and since then the LIGO scientists have been working tirelessly to verify the accuracy of their observations.
The discovery confirms a prediction made by Albert Einstein a century ago, when the great physicist postulated that a collision of extremely massive objects should produce observable ripples in the fabric of space-time.
Furthermore, the discovery made by LIGO has also become the first actual confirmation of the existence of black holes.
The discovery will likely provide scientists with new ways to discover more about the celestial bodies by studying the gravitational waves emitted by them.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/science/20160211/1034604164/black-hole-gravitational-waves.html#ixzz3ztKejgIz
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This one is actually yuge.
Yes,it is. Thanks for posting it.
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Okay, this is cool and all but what does that do for us, other than prove once again that Einstein was smart?
Honest question.... I don't know.
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Okay, this is cool and all but what does that do for us, other than prove once again that Einstein was smart?
Honest question.... I don't know.
I have as much ego as anyone you are likely to meet,but I'm not really sure I am qualified to answer that. The best thing I can do is offer my best GUESS.
I see things like this as the springboards that launch even newer and more creative ideas. It is now understood by the half-dozen or so people on earth who really and truly understand these things that certain other things might now be possible,or even likely.
Dumbing it down to my level,look at all the stuff we are using every day now that nobody would have ever even considered if someone hadn't discovered the reality of electricity,which caused other people to research it and see what they could do to harness it and make it useful.
Would you accept "Scientific Unintended Consequences"?
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Okay, this is cool and all but what does that do for us, other than prove once again that Einstein was smart?
Honest question.... I don't know.
yes....what does it do for us?
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I have as much ego as anyone you are likely to meet,but I'm not really sure I am qualified to answer that. The best thing I can do is offer my best GUESS.
I see things like this as the springboards that launch even newer and more creative ideas. It is now understood by the half-dozen or so people on earth who really and truly understand these things that certain other things might now be possible,or even likely.
Dumbing it down to my level,look at all the stuff we are using every day now that nobody would have ever even considered if someone hadn't discovered the reality of electricity,which caused other people to research it and see what they could do to harness it and make it useful.
Would you accept "Scientific Unintended Consequences"?
I'll take all the tid bits I can get... :)
Wheres dexter when you need him... he would know
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Well - it proves that the space-time fabric is not just an elegant mathematical construct, but that it actually exists. Once you know something exists, you can get to know it better.
As for immediate use - none. Then again, there was zero use for learning gross atomic structure at first either, and electricity was a carnival trick for kids ....
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Well - it proves that the space-time fabric is not just an elegant mathematical construct, but that it actually exists. Once you know something exists, you can get to know it better.
As for immediate use - none. Then again, there was zero use for learning gross atomic structure at first either, and electricity was a carnival trick for kids ....
So we have a solution to the yet undefined problem... thanks... :)
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This one is actually yuge.
Always consider the assumptions first... they are actually what would be considered 'yuge'...
Wave Bye-Bye (https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2016/02/12/wave-bye-bye/)
"It is imperative, however, to understand what is going on in the minds of theoretical physicists. It is assumption upon assumption, building theories on the backs of other theories that can provide no experimental evidence. LIGO is not announcing some new principle of physics, it is announcing the confirmation of computer models fashioned according to presumptions. If black holes do not exist, there is no gravity wave detection."
"What was detected?"
"Seismic noise is a problem because the detector is near an interstate highway and a rail line. When trains went by, the interferometer was knocked out. Nearby logging is also a continuing problem. The team claims that dampening and filtering systems solved those issues. The laser mirrors deteriorated, requiring two of them to be removed and replaced. Wasps made nests in the beam tubes. Their waste caused a leak in the vacuum system. The wasps were evicted. The point here is that LIGO is a device concept that is rife with potentially fatal flaws. Were all of those flaws, as well as others fully rectified?"
"The major premise is that black holes do not exist, despite the logical fallacy that claims they do."
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Dan, sharpen your quill. The oak gall ink you are using is having difficulty making it to my screen here.
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Okay, this is cool and all but what does that do for us, other than prove once again that Einstein was smart?
Honest question.... I don't know.
Now we know gravity is a wave, there may be ways to reproduce it. Maybe even there is a particle that exists that produces it, that we can produce.
That means gravity on spaceships generated electronically in some way, or heavier gravity on say a moon base. It also may lead to anti-gravity, eliminating the need for chemical based propulsion to leave the atmosphere.
I could see it even having applications in material handling. Imagine how much less space needed for waste if you could use gravity to shrink it's size to far less than the original. Maybe in such a way to produce energy.
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Now we know gravity is a wave, there may be ways to reproduce it. Maybe even there is a particle that exists that produces it, that we can produce.
That means gravity on spaceships generated electronically in some way, or heavier gravity on say a moon base. It also may lead to anti-gravity, eliminating the need for chemical based propulsion to leave the atmosphere.
I could see it even having applications in material handling. Imagine how much less space needed for waste if you could use gravity to shrink it's size to far less than the original. Maybe in such a way to produce energy.
I like it all,especially the potential to lessen gravity/weight in order to move it. Just look at all the energy that would save,as well as money for fuel,repairs due to wear and tear on heaving machines like trains,big trucks,airplanes,etc,etc,etc.
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Okay, this is cool and all but what does that do for us, other than prove once again that Einstein was smart?
Honest question.... I don't know.
That's the beauty of scientific inquiry: we don't know where it will lead until that moment that new findings, unrelated bits of data, and someone's curiosity and random strands of thought suddenly bursts into new understanding... and on and on it goes. Einstein was awesome in that regard.
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Thank you all for the info. :th_10444: